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Introduction
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The central clinical feature of most organic psychiatric disorders is impaired cognitive functioning. Cerebral dysfunction can however also cause organic mood states, personality change as well as organic psychotic and even neurotic states. The cerebral dysfunction may be caused by a disruption of brain structures or by alterations in neurophysiology. A vast array of medical and surgical conditions are capable of producing this disruption, they may be systemic or originate within the brain.
The disorders most frequently seen by psychiatrists are the neurodegenerative conditions associated with brain ageing which cause the chronic organic brain syndrome of the dementias (dealt with in the Psychiatry of Old Age section). Delirium, an acute organic brain syndrome is frequently encountered amongst medical and surgical inpatients.
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